The joys of American healthcare...

[Guest guest]

....are without number

It appears that the " approval letter " I received from CIGNA only covered

the postoperative hospitalization. They have apparently not made up

their greedy little corporate minds as to whether or not the surgery

itself is approved. I'm scheduled to leave for LA in 6 days, I've

already spent about $2000.00 out of pocket on

thus-far-unreimbursed-but-nonrefundable preoperative expenses, At this

late date, JRI has no way to fill my slot should insurance force a

cancellation and (late yesterday afternoon) someone from CIGNA's

" Predetermination Department " (not the " Preauthorization Department " ,

and it's important not to get those two confused) left a message at

JRI asking for " more information " about the surgery.

Unfortunately, she did not leave her name or her phone number, and

nobody at the CIGNA switchboard has ever heard of a " Predetermination

Department " . Calls to the " Preauthorization Department " (with whom

physicians usually deal) have yielded the information that my case is

indeed in the hands of the " Predetermination Department " , but that

nobody in the " Preauthorization Department " knows (or is " authorized "

to disclose ;-)) the phone number of this omnipotent and inscrutable

" Predetermination Department " .

Bear in mind that, even with the best of all possible outcomes, I'll

still be stuck with 20% of the bill for the operation (which works out

to 40% or more of what it would cost in Europe).

I'm sure our cousins across the pond find dealing with the NHS to be

difficult at times, but I think they have no idea how bad it *could*

be. Should they happen to hear the sound of a loud detonation, that

will be the faint echo of my head exploding the next time Bush

describes the US healthcare system as " the best in the world " .

Steve